And even more surprising, I found myself thinking of a simpler, less convoluted way of changing how the Flamer works without having to go through grandiose mechanics or buffs.
My proposal is to throw out pretty much everything it currently does, even its current damage. In other words, get rid of the entire heat mechanic for both on the player and the target. Keep the range as is, but maybe tweak the damage based on the proposal below.
Proposal: Have the Flamer's damage bypass armor completely, dealing damage directly to internal structure with ZERO chance of causing critical hits. Only when the armor is destroyed by any other means can the Flamer then cause critical hits as normal. This would be akin to when a player overrides shutdown, and the excess heat causes internal structure damage only.
IIRC, the Flamer currently does 0.7 damage per second. This would need to be brought down. What that number would be is up to PGI to figure out; maybe 0.1 or 0.2 per second per Flamer. I dunno, and frankly, that would be out of my hands and would abide by whatever choice PGI makes in that regards. But this new mechanic could potentially (with testing of course) bring back a deader than dead weapon.
I know my 4 Pumas would love me for it.
Thoughts? Constructive feedback?
Edit: Forgot to add, that the new Flamer should definitely land critical hits on trees and destructible terrain, possibly even Omega generators. Testing required naturally.
Except for the trees. No mercy to virtual trees!
Edited by Caine2112, 20 May 2015 - 09:00 AM.